blakerwry said:
Has anybody considered a partially sub terranian house?
It makes sense to me to have say half of your house underground, or even most of it. The earth is at a constant 53F? It just seems so much more economical to have the Earth help insulate your home and keep its temperature regulated.
I would do this if it were available in the region i lived in.
This is definitely the way to go in my opinion. The only problem is it's really only useful for single family home situations. In a city like New York it is possible in theory to put a 50-story apartment building underground but the costs would be enormous compared to the energy savings. In fact, the energy required to dig the hole would likely be more than the energy saved heating/cooling over the life of the building. Still, it doesn't mean we can't try to make tall buildings more environmentally friendly, starting with more efficient lighting, better insulation, and putting solar panels on the sides of the building to satisfy most or all of the power requirements.
Assuming this new type of solar panel is as cheap and efficient as the initial data suggest, it may very well revolutionize our society. The power grid will be largely replaced by onsite solar electrical generation. In many cases the surplus power will be sold to the electrical company, so people can supplement their income by setting up large arrays of solar panels. It may be feasible to eventually start retiring power plants, starting first with the fossil fuel ones. Large arrays of solar panels can be set up in parking lots to supplement the solar panels built into electric cars, making the range issue of these cars a moot point(not that the 60 to 100 mile range of current models is that big of a handicap for the 99% of trips that are less than this distance anyway), and offering virtually free "refueling". About the only thing that can't be powered directly via solar panels will be large airplanes, but perhaps some scheme where solar-generated electricity is sent to the plane via microwaves will be feasible. In any case, this has the potential to be an invention that may make oil next to worthless within a few years after it is mass produced, so let's all hope this doesn't turn out to be another promising idea that never sees the light of day. Given that many times more power falls on the Earth's surface than we humans need it makes little sense not to take advantage of it once the means are economically available. The beauty of solar power is that once the system is purchased the energy is essentially "free" other than occasional maintainance/repair of the solar grid.
The prospect of being able to make a home electrically self-sufficient for a few thousand dollars or less is too attractive a propostion to pass up. Probably the biggest costs will be the batteries to store surplus power for night hours, and the inverters to convert the DC to 120 VAC or 240 VAC. Perhaps as solar power catches on we will see more and more DC appliances so that the inefficiencies inherent in the DC/AC conversion process can be avoided. Electronics can run right off the solar grid with only cheap voltage regulators rather than the cumbersome transformers required to run off AC. Once thermoelectric modules, which run off DC, are made more efficient they can satisfy home cooling needs. DC brushless motors can be used in any appliances which require them, etc. Perhaps appliances of the future will be able to run off 120 VAC/240 VAC or 12 VDC/24 VDC via a simple switch selector. It certainly wouldn't be that hard to convert many current appliances, including PCs, to do just that. Also, we'll need to standardize on a DC voltage once this idea catches on, and also an outlet type. Perhaps a higher voltage, like 120 VDC, instead of 12 or 24 or 48, will make more sense in order to keep wiring losses low(higher voltage has less amps for the same power and line losses are proportional to amps²). Just throwing out some ideas here. :excl:
